


To Hide And To Be Found

by Quixotic_Pixie



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Awkwardness, Old Friends, Post-breakout, slow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 00:43:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11543880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quixotic_Pixie/pseuds/Quixotic_Pixie
Summary: Reaper wants to hide from the past while refusing to back away from it. Akande is disappointed that Reaper would even try.(Me largely "what if"ing Doomfist and Reaper's characters)





	To Hide And To Be Found

**Author's Note:**

> A very passive look at the relationship between Gabriel/Reaper and Akande/Doomfist. Largely spawned by the knowledge that Gabriel's been Reaper for decades, Gabriel is somehow on the Talon council despite not (to the public) apparently having ties to any organisation, and Doomfist was incarcerated before Overwatch fell. I find it very curious.
> 
> I wrote this on a phone because I'm out and about all the time right now so it's been written largely while travelling. Apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes (I turned off autocorrect as this update's word replacements are awful) and wonky formatting.

The jet was silent. The standard Talon infiltration carrier made as little noise as mechanically possible, and the occupants were stood just staring at one another. Now the rush of Doomfist's breakout had passed, having gotten far enough away from the panicked compound without successful pursuit to be safe, all that was left was the two men and countless unspoken questions.

Reaper looked away, not wanting to engage in the conversation which would ensue if they carried on staring. Akande looked well, six years of incarceration not seeming to have changed the man at all. But things had changed, Reaper had changed, and he was left frustrated by a sudden lack of words. Looking around the jet didn't help any. It was built for functionality, not awkward silences and the avoidance of unwanted conversation, with a dull steel body and no ornamentation. The journey to the nearest Talon base would take an hour. It may as well have been days.

"Gabriel." Reaper's chest tightened. Not needing to breathe didn't stop him from feeling like he was suffocating. Akande wasn't going to avoid the conversation. Why wouldn't he? They'd worked together in the past before Akande's incarceration but unlike the rest of Talon Akande had joined the dots: the nature of the jobs "Reaper" took, the coincidental ebb of Blackwatch activity when he was around, the similarities in build and weapon choice to a certain Blackwatch commander. Akande knew who he was and what side he was on. To see him here, aiding the breakout of a Talon council member, was unfathomable regardless of their personal interactions in the past. Reaper snorted.

"Try again," he replied, looking at Akande once more. Behind his mask he was safe, he didn't have to worry about the other man picking up how painful it was to finally find a link to his past he could talk to honestly and not be able to. He would draw on this lie for as long as he could. Until seeing Akande again he was unsure it wasn't the truth. He wasn't Gabriel Reyes. He was even more foolhardy while also somehow being the coward Reyes never was. His feelings were the same: betrayal, anger... and something completely different when it came to Akande.

Akande just raised an eyebrow, eyes now sharp and face displaying none of the prior curiosity.

"A shame. I respected that man a great deal. I suppose it _was_ unlikely." Akande turned away, apparently content to leave the conversation there for now. Reaper almost sighed in relief, even as the words stung a little. Akande would never realise that Reyes against all sense _would_ have retrieved Akande on no-one's orders but his own. Even if Reaper wouldn't have.

* * *

Akande _was not_ content to leave the conversation there. Gabriel had to know he wasn't believed. The stature, his arms crossed and the odd tap of his foot on the floor of the jet, contrary to popular belief didn't speak of boredom or impatience but nervousness. Gabriel was afraid, but what of? Akande had been overjoyed, if stunned, when he saw him. He thought Gabriel was dead, the little news that spread through Helix's harshest prison containing words of the explosion in Switzerland and the deaths of Gabriel and Gabriel's beloved strike commander. Many of the inmates had been overjoyed. Akande was disappointed. Gone with Overwatch was Talon's most worthy opponent. Gone with Gabriel was the only person Akande considered more than an aquaintance. To be so near and so far from that person was... concerning. A conversation to be picked up another time however.

"We have a mole in Helix," he said instead of pursuing the conversation. If Gabriel didn't want to say anything more he wouldn't, and he was suspicious of Helix's slow reaction to the breakout. Helix was no Overwatch, but they were not incompetent.

"We have several. The one in currently in that facility is unlikely to be thoroughly questioned. We're expecting a report from her as soon as possible." Interesting. There couldn't have been many people with the ability to instigate the necessary changes which made their escape easier. To have one above suspicion...

Akande nodded curtly. He'd find out soon enough, it wasn't important right now. He was content to know Talon hadn't been entirely lax in his absence.

He was however, curious as to why they'd chosen now to retrieve him. While he was hardly unformidable without his gauntlet, he was of greater use with it than without it. And he knew they didn't have it. Did they need him to retrieve it? It was hardly being kept secure, someone had the stupid idea of keeping it in a museum exhibition of all places - not even a replica if what he'd heard was correct. Talon may not have been inactive during his incarceration but they'd certainly grown complacent.

It was to his advantage that it hadn't yet been retrieved, but did give the rest of the Talon council fewer bargaining chips when he returned. Favours were not done for free in Talon, not even for their own. _Especially_ not for their own. One had only to remember poor Amelie Lacroix to remember that. A smart girl not smart enough for leadership, so they ripped her mind away instead of finding a subtler way to help her with her problems. Who knew what they'd demand in return for his gauntlet. Who knew who else the imbeciles would get to _test_ it.

His first task would be to take back his gauntlet, and _then_ work out what mess Gabriel had gotten himself into. Talon went further than even Gabriel's whatever the cost mentality. Gabriel wasn't meant for Talon and he should know - it was originally Gabriel's idea.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea if this even makes sense. Will I continue this? Not opposed, I know who I'm head-cannoning the mole to be (unlikely but fun to play with) and I'd love to see more Akandriel, but we'll see. My account is a puddle of unfinished fics. Assume this closed, feel free to sub if you enjoyed it though ;)


End file.
